The new comic book movie - which sees Chris Hemsworth reprise his role as the titular superhero - will feature many funny scenes, and director Alan Taylor admits he felt he had to up the ante following the comical scenes in 2012's 'The Avengers' and 'Iron Man 3' earlier this year.

He explained: ''I felt my first task was to darken the world, and deepen it, and dirty it up a bit. And then as we got into the process, I thought, if we're going to darken it, deepen it and possibly kill off characters we love, we better be darn sure there's balance on the other side.

'''The Avengers' came out while we were starting it and 'Iron Man 3' came out while we were finishing it, so you were screwed if you don't also keep it funny and light on its feet. It's called 'The Dark World', but humour was critical in it.''

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was also pleased with the humor in the flick and feels it is imperative in grounding the film for the audience.

He added to BANG Showbiz: ''Humour is definitely the key. We've got spaceships in this movie and other planets in this movie, and we've found that humour is an amazing way to get the audience to just embrace and accept all those worlds, all that craziness and costumes. It's worked for us going all the way back to the first 'Iron Man' film.''